• Question: How likely is a magnitude 6-8 earthquake to happen in the UK

    Asked by ttmadman2000 to Cesar, Emily, Jamie, Kate, Philippa on 18 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Jamie Gallagher

      Jamie Gallagher answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I think it is extremly unlikely. The UK is far away from the nearest fault line (caused by tectonic plates) and earthquakes of that magnitude would have to be near an area of high geographic instability. We are quite safe here. We do have some volcanoes but most of them died off long ago.

      The UK is a very run of the mill country, fortunatly we do not have to cope with the extremes faced by other contries.

    • Photo: Kate Clancy

      Kate Clancy answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I agree with Jamie. Though you would be surprised at the places that can get small earthquakes. I am originally from Boston, on the east coast of the US. When we were looking for a house in Urbana, Illinois, where I live now, there was a small earthquake! But we live almost exactly in the middle of the country, where there are no big faultlines! It happened early in the morning and woke me and my daughter up (who was only a few weeks old at the time), but my husband snored right through… 😉

    • Photo: Philippa Demonte

      Philippa Demonte answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      @ttmadman2000 The UK has small earthquakes every year because of slight movement at the sutures (joins) between several old tectonic plates. None of these plates are subducting (being pushed) under each other though, so it is highly unlikely that a magnitude 6-8 earthquake would happen in the UK.

      You can learn more about earthquakes in the UK via the School Seismology Project:
      http://www.bgs.ac.uk/schoolseismology/schoolSeismology.cfc?method=viewLatestQuake

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